The word "palatability" is associated with the perception of pleasant tastes, but the amount of information concerning the contribution of the palatal taste receptors to the gustatory sense is meager. Taste buds are present on the oral palates of humans and the human palate is as sensitive to chemical solutions as the tongue. In the rat which is frequently used as an animal model for the study of taste, there are as many taste buds on the palate as on the anterior part of the tongue. In these experiments the chemical sensitivity of the oral palate of the rat is examined by recording summated nerve response from the greater superficial petrosal branch of the facial nerve while chemical solutions are applied to the palatine surface. Concentration-response relationships are determined for sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sucrose, hydrochloric acid and quinine hydrochloride. Three separate populations of taste buds are located on the palate which are designated the nasoincisor ducts, the Geschmacksstreifen or "taste strip", and the posterior palatine field. Each population is individually stimulated with a region stimulator and the regional responses from the great petrosal nerve are determined from the summated response. The regional distribution of nerve fibers to the palate is reconstructed using silver staining techniques. Degeneration experiments indicate that there is considerable overlapping of nerve fibers from bilateral sources and from separate branches in the rostal-caudal axis. With high densities of taste receptors and overlapping innervation there seems to be present the requisite elements for lateral taste interactions which have been studied in this laboratory among fungiform receptors of the anterior tongue.